


Buns Taste Nicer Than Rabbit Food

by WeSayNosoro



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Fluff, More character and relationship tags to be added as they appear!!, arisa is a morosexual, au where none of the bands form and kasumi volunteers at an animal shelter instead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-07-03 06:44:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15813591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeSayNosoro/pseuds/WeSayNosoro
Summary: Arisa’s survival guide for helping Kasumi volunteer at an animal shelter:1) Make sure Kasumi doesn’t get in any trouble.2) Don’t make a fool of herself in any way.3) Pretend not to be interested in the beautiful customer who frequently comes to see the rabbits.Unfortunately for her, though, that’s easier said than done. Especially that last point.





	1. First Impressions of a Rabbit Enthusiast

“ _And_ you get a cool name tag!” Kasumi said, thrusting it in Arisa’s arms. She scrunched up her nose.

“Is all this really necessary?”

Kasumi pouted. “Of course it is! We’re workers here, after all!”

“Volunteers,” Arisa corrected.

To be honest, Arisa had no idea why on Earth she agreed to help Kasumi out at an animal shelter. Perhaps it was her insistent nagging, and the fact that she wouldn’t drop it until she agreed.

Upon entering, she had been given a clean uniform and a briefing of the job. It didn’t seem too hard, cleaning out the cages and feeding the animals, but Arisa was awful with animals, and she wasn’t too great with people either.

“Out of all the places you could have worked at, you chose an animal shelter?” she asked Kasumi, pulling on her gloves.

“Well, yeah. Animals are so cute and I knew I had to do it!”

“Right. Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

They got to work, entering one of the rabbit enclosures and picking up a cage to clean. The rabbits hopped around the enclosure, and Kasumi giggled when one climbed up onto her lap. She petted it whilst Arisa pretended not to notice the other rabbits.

“Hey, wanna stroke them?” Kasumi said, putting the rabbit down only to pick up another one and begin petting that, too.

“No thanks.”

“Come on! They don’t bite!” Kasumi held out the rabbit. Arisa rolled her eyes before gingerly taking it in her arms and hovering her hand above it.

“Make sure to stroke down the fur, not up,” Kasumi advised.

“Yeah, I already knew that.”

Arisa laid her hand on it and began to stroke. The white fur was soft and she realised that maybe, just maybe, volunteering here wasn’t so bad after all. Just then, the gate swung open. Arisa looked up.

A beautiful girl stood there, wearing a blue shirt and white trousers. She had long black hair that fell down her back, and soft green eyes. She looked almost familiar, but Arisa couldn’t put her finger on it.

“O-Tae!” Kasumi jumped up, hugging the girl. “Here again to adopt another rabbit?”

The girl, who was currently eyeing the rabbits in the enclosure, shook her head. “I’m won’t buy any today. I just wanna look.”

Kasumi grinned. She bent down again and whispered in Arisa’s ear, “She says that all the time, but she always ends up walking out with a new rabbit anyway.”

“A frequent customer?” Arisa said quietly.

Then she felt the girl’s eyes on her, and she quickly looked away, pretending to be busy cleaning the cage.

Until she heard a voice addressing her.

“Are you new here? What’s your name?”

Arisa glanced up, and the girl was crouching beside her, absentmindedly petting a rabbit as she looked at Arisa with a curious expression. Apparently, she didn’t see the name tag that hung loosely around Arisa’s neck. That or she couldn’t read.

“Uh... Arisa Ichigaya. I just started here today because _somebody_ wouldn’t let it go until I agreed.”

“Hey!” Kasumi piped up from behind her. “It wasn’t my fault! I just wanted to hang out with you!”

Arisa rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t find it in her to be that mad at Kasumi. She was probably concerned for her, after all. In fact, Arisa didn’t really mind it, as she had never had friends before and this helped fill some of the loneliness.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when the girl spoke again. “Cool. I’m Tae Hanazono. I play the guitar and I like rabbits.” She offered Arisa a smile, who felt her cheeks burn red and she hid her face behind her hair.

Kasumi laughed. “I think that _like_ is a bit of an understatement, O-Tae.”

Tae didn’t seem to hear her, though, as she got some rabbit food from her pocket and held it out to the nearest rabbits. Arisa used this opportunity to lean over and speak to Kasumi.

“Do you know her? You guys seems kinda familiar with each other.”

Kasumi nodded. “Yeah! We’re in the same class at school! I’m surprised you never noticed her.”

“Oh...” So that’s why she was so familiar, Arisa figured. She often went into Kasumi’s class to talk to her and Saaya, another friend, but she rarely took notice of the others in the class.

She was about to open her mouth again to speak, but Tae abruptly stood up, cradling a small grey rabbit in her arms. “I’ll take this one.”

“ _Huh?_ ” Arisa jumped to her feet. “I thought you said-“

Kasumi slapped a hand over her mouth. “Sure thing! I’ll take you over to the front desk and you can fill out the papers!”

She led Tae back inside, leaving Arisa staring after them, her mouth hanging open. For Kasumi, though, it seemed natural to serve this girl who seemed to adopt all the time. Taking one last look back at all the other rabbits hopping around, Arisa went and followed after them, making sure to shut the gate of the enclosure behind her.

When she caught up, the two girls were already at the front desk. Kasumi was preparing a cage for Tae to take the rabbit home in, whilst Tae dug around in her pockets for a pen that she didn’t seem to have.

“Here,” Arisa sighed, approaching from behind. She took out a pen and handed it to Tae.

“Thanks.”

Tae hummed as she clicked the pen open, beginning to fill out the forms spread out on the table in front of her. Arisa walked over to Kasumi.

“Is she allowed to adopt so many rabbits?” she asked, eyeing the girl who was concentrating on writing.

“Yeah. As long as she looks after them and all that, it’s no problem. Actually, I went to her house once and it’s amazing! Like, super big! And she has a giant room and garden for the rabbits and everything. You should ask her if you can visit!” Kasumi put emphasis on the last sentence, and Arisa folded her arms.

“I’d rather not, thank you very much.”

Tae looked up, gathering the papers together and handing them to Kasumi, who quickly scanned over them, satisfied.

“Great!” Kasumi said. “Enjoy your new rabbit!”

Flashing a small smile at her and Arisa, Tae waved a hand and turned, exiting through the glass double doors.

Kasumi began to walk back to the enclosure. “She’ll be back in a couple of weeks, I bet.” She glanced slyly at Arisa. “Or you can talk to her at school. I’m sure you’d both get along like a house on fire.”

Arisa didn’t reply to that, but her gaze lingered on the doors that Tae just left through until she hurried to catch up.

There was something about the girl that Arisa couldn’t shake from her mind, and even as she worked with Kasumi for the rest of the afternoon, she still couldn’t help but wonder about her. But first, she had to concentrate on making sure Kasumi wouldn’t get into any of her usual antics.

There was one thing that Arisa knew for certain, though. She’d probably need to eat a lot of buns if she wanted to survive this whole volunteering at an animal shelter thing.

And as she shifted through her pockets near the end of the afternoon to find something to lend to another customer, she drooped her shoulders in defeat. “Ah, crap. She forgot to give my pen back to me.”


	2. It’s Not a Big Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, Kasumi is insistent on Arisa making friends with Tae. Also cats.

At the end of their first successful day, Kasumi decided to go out to get something to eat to celebrate, and she dragged Arisa along with her. Naturally, the first place to come to mind was Yamabuki Bakery.

Kasumi swung the door open, Arisa following close behind. Saaya was standing behind the counter, talking to a girl who Arisa recognised as her girlfriend.

"Oh, hey guys!" Saaya said upon noticing them, raising a hand in greeting.

"Hi," Arisa said, and Kasumi replied with a similar enthusiastic greeting.

Arisa's eyes scanned over the selection of food. This bakery really had the best buns to offer, and she sometimes came here after school with Kasumi and Rimi. Her eyes landed on a chocolate cornet, Rimi's favourite, but one that Arisa herself hadn't eaten in a while.

"I'll take the chocolate cornet, please," Arisa said.

"Oh, me too!" Kasumi agreed.

Saaya laughed and took the cornets out of their basket, placing them in a brown bag. "Here you go." She paused, before turning to grin at Arisa. "How was your first day with the animals?"

"Oh." Arisa's mind drifted back to Tae Hanazono, the girl who forgot to return Arisa's pen to her. She mentally decided to ask for it back when she saw her next. "It was okay, I guess."

"I see. Have you gotten to know any customers? I sometimes become friends with people who frequently come to the bakery."

Kasumi jumped in before Arisa could reply. "O-Tae came again today! She met Arisa and they seemed to hit it off!"

"No we didn't! I barely even spoke to her!"

It was then that Saaya's girlfriend spoke up, who Arisa had forgotten was even there. "But you guys go to the same school, right? I heard Kasumi and Saaya mention her before."

"Yeah!" Kasumi said. "I told her that, but she must be too embarrassed."

"I am not! And why do you keep talking about her, anyway? I'm not interested in her."

Kasumi pouted. "I thought the two of you could become friends."

 _Friends_. It was a word that Arisa herself hadn’t really grasped the full meaning of until recently. Kasumi had been insistent on becoming friends with her, the genius shut-in with poor social skills, and she still didn’t really understand why Kasumi had taken such a liking to her.

Though she couldn’t complain about it, really. She liked having Kasumi, Saaya and Rimi around, and without them, she would still be holed up at home, coming out every so often to water the plants.

But this Tae girl... Arisa had only spoken to her for the first time today, and now Kasumi was again having wild ideas about them making friends. It seemed a bit too sudden.

Eventually she replied. “Yeah, well I’m not the kind of person who can be all buddy-buddy with every single person I meet.”

Saaya laughed. “I guess not. But it wouldn’t hurt to try, right? Hanazono-san is in the same class as us.”

Kasumi jumped in, nodding her head excitedly. Arisa sometimes wondered if her head would fall off one day. “Yep! She doesn’t talk much to others, though, but once you get to know her, she’s really fun!”

They were interrupted when the door swung open, and another customer strolled in, heading immediately for the buns. “You beat me again, Tomo-chin,” she said in a monotonous voice with a smirk, glancing at Saaya’s girlfriend before turning back to the food.

“Oh, I think she wanted to be with me.” Saaya grinned and nudged Tomoe playfully, whose face was rapidly turning the same shade as her hair.

“Exactly,” the customer replied, and then she began mumbling quietly about how hard it was to choose from the selection of food, and whether her weekly allowance was enough.

Arisa rolled her eyes. It seemed like the world was against her, with even Saaya in a happy relationship and Kasumi making friends left, right and centre. To distract herself, she pulled the chocolate cornet from her bag and began munching. Kasumi bought another cornet, stating that she’d give it to Rimi later. Arisa watched her as she did so, her traitorous mind thinking that it wouldn’t be so bad if she had another friend she could buy things for, as well.

 

* * *

 

The next day found Arisa standing outside Kasumi’s classroom, wondering whether she would look stupid if she just turned around and went straight back to her own classroom again. But this was for her pen.

Okay, maybe she was making a bigger deal of this than she should be. She should just turn the handle, walk in, and-

“Arisa!” Kasumi called out to her as soon as she slid the door open. She felt a couple of pairs of eyes on her, but she decided to ignore it in favour of heading to Kasumi, walking past an empty desk in the middle of the room.

“Hi,” Arisa said, nodding in greeting at Rimi and Saaya, who had moved their chairs to Kasumi’s desk.

Rimi was happily munching on the cornet that Kasumi had bought for her yesterday, but she stopped for a moment to say, “Is everything okay, Arisa-chan?”

Ah, right. Arisa rarely came to their classroom before lessons, so this probably came off as unusual. “Yeah, I’m-“ she began.

“O-Tae isn’t here yet. She usually comes in right before the bell,” Kasumi not-so-helpfully supplied.

“Kasumi!”

“What? I thought you would want to talk to her,” Kasumi said.

Was she still holding onto that thought? Kasumi really was impossible. "No! Well, yeah, kinda, I need to ask her for something, but _no_ ," she blurted out. Maybe she should just let Tae keep the pen to save her from further embarrassment. "Actually, you know what, I'll come back during lunch."

With her face flushed bright red, Arisa turned and left. She hurried into her own classroom where she plopped down at her desk and rested her head on her arms, letting out a deep sigh. This was going to be one long day, and even as lessons began and she switched her focus to work, the thought of approaching Tae at lunch still persisted in the back of her mind.

Finally, when the bell rang for lunch, Arisa rushed to put her things away so she could head to Kasumi's classroom, but she purposefully slowed down when she realised that she was probably seeming weird. Her classmates likely already thought she was acting off this morning when she had rushed in with cheeks flaming red.

And sure enough, as she slid open the door to class A, she saw Kasumi, Saaya and Rimi sitting around Kasumi's desk again, but her attention was drawn more towards the girl sitting in the middle with sleek black hair and green eyes.

Upon noticing her, Kasumi pointed at Tae and grinned, and Arisa let out an exasperated huff. She chose not to say anything, though, as she walked towards Tae’s desk.

"Hey," she said. The girl looked up from her sandwich, slightly startled.

"Hey?" Tae replied, tilting her head.

Arisa briefly considered just letting this go and saying she made a mistake, but she was already too deep into this. "Uh, you didn't give me back my pen yesterday. Do you have it?"

Tae’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a moment as she regarded Arisa, before her face eventually cleared and she let out a small "Oh."

"Hm?"

"You're the girl who was helping Kasumi, right? Ichigaya-san, was it?"

"Y- Yeah..." Arisa was slightly surprised that she remembered her name, as they had only just met the day before. She cleared her throat. "So do you have it?"

"Have what?" Tae tilted her head as she blinked at Arisa.

 _Really_? Now Arisa knew why Kasumi got along with this girl so well. They must be on the same wavelength most of the time. She resisted slapping a palm to her forehead. "The pen," she said shortly.

"The pen? You gave me a pen?"

"Yes, I did, and you forgot to give it back to me." It was like talking to a brick wall. It wasn't the first time Arisa thought about just letting her keep the pen. She watched as Tae dug around in her pockets, shaking her head when her hands came up with nothing.

"Your bag?" Arisa prompted.

Without a word, Tae grabbed her bag and zipped it open, rummaging through it. _Finally_ , she pulled out a pen, one that Arisa recognised. She even let out a small sigh of relief before remembering herself and standing straight again.

"Was it this one?" Tae said, and Arisa nodded in response.

"Thanks." She hoped she'd never have to go through all this trouble again. She turned her head back towards Kasumi's desk, where the occupant waved at her.

"I should get going. Kasumi's waiting for me," she told Tae, pointing in her friend's direction.

That was when Tae abruptly stood up. "You're friends with Kasumi?"

Arisa rolled her eyes. Wasn't it obvious from yesterday? Even though she was reluctant to call Kasumi her friend outright, she still knew that she was. It was something that Kasumi would never let her forget. "Yeah," she replied.

"Oh, cool. I'm gonna go sit with them too. Saaya smells nice today."

"Huh?"

Tae pointed towards the girl, as though Arisa didn't know who she was. Her eyes seemed to sparkle, though she might have just been imagining it. "Her bakery has the _best_ food, and she usually has the scent of it." Tae scraped her chair under her table and walked over to Kasumi's, settling down beside Saaya.

"Yeah..." Arisa said quietly. She hesitated in her spot for a moment; she had gotten what she had come for, and she could just go back to class, but she could also sit with the others for lunch. But Tae was there.

Arisa still didn't know what to make of the girl. She was nice enough, and seemed to do things of her own accord, but there was also something strange about her that she just couldn't place. Perhaps it was the couple of weird remarks she made that seemed unlike her graceful appearance.

She shook her head, clearing herself of those thoughts. Maybe she should just go back to class to get ahead on some homework during lunch. That was a good enough reason, right?

With one last glance towards the other desk, as Tae grabbed some bread from Saaya's lunch, Arisa turned and went to her own classroom.

And to make her day even more tiring, she had a shift after school again.

 

* * *

 

Kasumi stood at the reception desk, tapping a tune mindlessly as she hummed. Arisa had half a mind to tell her to stop.

Of course her second shift here would be boring. Hardly anyone had come in, and the animals had already been fed and taken care of, though Arisa was tempted to go back to the rabbit enclosure. She had to admit that she was warming up to them.

It was a while until Kasumi spoke up, ceasing the tapping on the desk. "You didn't join us for lunch today. How come?"

Arisa blinked. She thought Kasumi wouldn't have noticed it, but of course she would. Her mind wandered back to Tae earlier, going over to their lunch table even though she had never seen her hang out with them before. "No reason. I had homework."

Kasumi scoffed. "Yeah, right. You always do your homework in private so you look like you actually don't do any work. I know the truth, Arisa." She ended that statement with a smirk, and Arisa's cheeks heated up.

"The truth about what?" she asked indignantly.

"Two things-" Kasumi walked out from behind the desk and clapped an arm around Arisa's shoulder, as though she were about to tell her a secret- "Firstly, that you actually _do_ care about your grades, no matter what you might say. You're top of our year, after all. No way you can get those grades without studying."

"And?"

"And, that you didn't come to our table because O-Tae was joining us for lunch. You didn't want to be embarrassed around her."

Kasumi's blunt delivery only embarrassed Arisa even more. She shrugged herself from her hold and turned to walk off in the direction of the enclosures. At least the bunnies wouldn't tease her like the girl standing in front of her.

However, just as she turned the handle to leave, the front door clicked open and an unfamiliar girl walked in. Honestly, she was kind of striking. Arisa took in the sophisticated way the girl held herself, standing up straight to make up for her short height, and straight hair falling neatly down her back without a single strand out of place. There was a soft look on her face, though she seemed like someone you wouldn't want to mess around with.

Arisa didn't even realise she was staring until the girl spoke. "Is there something wrong?" Her voice, too, was quiet but stern.

She hurriedly shook her head, expecting Kasumi to greet her formally, but instead, Kasumi threw her arms around the girl. Arisa rolled her eyes; this shouldn't have been a surprise to her with how friendly she was with everyone.

"Yukina!" Kasumi greeted. "It's been such a boring shift today, I was hoping you'd come!"

And she knew this girl by name, too. Did she know everyone in this country?

Yukina gave her a small smile, and gently pried Kasumi's arms off her. "Knowing you, you could make anything exciting if you tried," she replied, and turned her attention to Arisa, who stood awkwardly to the side, one hand on the door handle. "I've not seen you around. Do you work here?"

"Yeah, you could say that..." she twisted a strand of hair around her finger and shifted her feet, feeling Yukina's stern gaze upon her. Amazing people skills, as always.

Luckily, though, Yukina didn't seem to judge her, and she instead gave her a nod. "Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Minato Yukina."

"She's Arisa!" Kasumi butted in excitedly, pointing at Arisa's name tag. She grinned. "Yukina comes here a lot. She loves the cats."

Arisa turned to look at the girl. She didn't really seem like a cat person, but then again, did she seem like an animal whisperer herself? She had almost forgotten that it was Kasumi who had dragged her into this in the first place.

"Oh, that's nice," she said, then quickly averted her gaze, realising how lame that must have sounded.

Kasumi grabbed Yukina's arm. "Come on! We got a new cat here the other day. I'm sure you'll love her!"

With that, the two of them left, and Arisa decided to follow behind. She had nothing better to do, anyway.

Yukina really did know how to handle cats. She had brought in a couple of toys in her sleek bag, and had knelt on the floor to play with them as Kasumi chatted to her. There was a sparkle in her eyes that Arisa was quite familiar with, except it seemed even brighter somehow.

Arisa herself stood a few feet away from them, pretending to busy herself with a loose thread in her shirt. She wasn't sure if she should try and start up a conversation with Yukina, but looking over at Kasumi, she knew she was doing enough talking for both of them. So she didn't do anything, mindlessly twisting the thread around her finger until Kasumi said something that made her look up.

"How about a song for the cats?"

There was a short pause as Yukina thought about her request, and Arisa glanced at Kasumi, who smiled as though she had asked this many times before. Yukina hummed. "Okay."

Arisa's eyes widened; she hadn't expected her to agree so quickly. But Yukina took a deep breath, and began the first words of a soft song that was completely unfamiliar. It sounded great, though, and Arisa found herself closing her eyes to relax to the tune.

She hadn't even realised this herself until the song ended and there was a weird kind of silence. Arisa snapped her eyes open to see Yukina stroking a cat as though nothing had happened. However, Kasumi caught her staring.

"Like it?" she asked, but immediately spoke again before she could get a reply. "Yukina's an amazing singer, and she writes her own songs! She says she wants to be a singer when she's older!"

The fondness in Kasumi's voice and the warm way she looked at Yukina gave Arisa a similar feeling to how she felt when Saaya playfully teased her girlfriend. It was as though somebody had installed a heater into her body, warming her up but also making her at a loss, for this feeling had been so unfamiliar until she witnessed interactions like these.

She wrapped her arms around herself as Kasumi delved into a ramble about hearing Yukina singing at an amateur concert almost a year ago.

She would realise later that the feeling was desire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let’s see how many rarepairs I can squeeze in by the end of this (jk I’ll probably just stick with these three). I saw a chance with yukikasu and I took it,, it’s such an under appreciated ship
> 
> Also Arisa continues being surrounded by people in happy relationships and I just. Mood.


	3. Crush Talk, Guitars, and Three Buns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arisa has another encounter with Tae, learning about a certain hobby of hers along the way. Also Saaya is a good wingman.

"So, what's up with you and Minato-san?"

Arisa decided it wouldn't hurt to interrogate Kasumi a little bit, given how much she had been teased over her "friendship" with Tae Hanazono.

Kasumi leaned back against the metal gate, mindlessly patting a cat that walked past her. Yukina had left in a rush not so long ago, having lost track of time being with the cats. "She's just a super cool person, that's all! And she's gorgeous, and has a great voice, and-"

"Okay, I get it." Arisa held up a hand to stop her, but a small smirk found its way onto her face when she realised just how deep Kasumi was. She hadn't failed to notice the sparkles in her eyes whenever she mentioned Yukina, or how she loved to sing her praises. At the very least, if Kasumi continued trying to talk about Tae, she could always bring up Yukina to embarrass her.

But, Arisa guessed, Kasumi wasn't the kind of person to get embarrassed over a crush. Not like most people, anyway.

She sighed. "Are you ever gonna tell her how you feel?" she asked, turning her head to make it clear that she obviously didn't care about such things.

"I _want_ to, but I don't know how!" Kasumi huffed. "We've hung out a lot and I've been to her shows and stuff, but I don't even know if she's interested!"

Okay, maybe she had more humility than Arisa gave her credit for. "How hard can it be?" she replied despite herself. "Saaya did it."

"But that's Saaya. Everyone could clearly see how head over heels they were for each other!" Kasumi paused. "And besides, I'm pretty sure it was Tomoe who confessed first."

She couldn't argue with that. "Okay, well, just think of something, then. I don't want to see you guys dancing around each other forever."

Kasumi bolted upright, grinning at Arisa, who was still making a point of not looking at her. "So you do care!" she said triumphantly.

"I never said that!" Arisa refuted in a loud voice, but it was hopeless. She'd already dug herself into this hole, and knowing Kasumi, there was no way out of it.

Just then, they noticed their boss walking past the enclosure they were in. They tried to stay quiet, but they had no such luck.

"Toyama-san, Ichigaya-san. Are you going to be sitting there gossiping all day?"

Kasumi stood up and hurried out, saluting playfully. "Nope!"

That left Arisa alone, and she stood, smoothing down her skirt. Well, there was no use stewing over this forever. She was a volunteer here, after all.

* * *

 

Arisa sometimes wondered if the world was against her.

It was two days later, and before she went home after school, she was heading to the staff room to drop off some work.

On her way back out, she passed the music room, where she heard a quiet tune being played inside. It was quite beautiful, even though Arisa knew nothing about what she assumed was the guitar.

She hadn't noticed she had stopped outside the room to listen to it, but she simply decided that she could leave when the music ended. It was calming, and she had no idea who was inside.

After about a minute, the music ended. Arisa didn't move for a few seconds just in case it would start again; it was kind of addictive. But those few seconds were all it took for the door to open, and Arisa found herself face-to-face with none other than Tae Hanazono herself.

For a moment, she stood there, stock-still as her brain tried to process the girl in front of her, with a slightly confused expression. She snapped out of it when Tae poked her cheek.

"Is everything alright?" Tae said, a hint of concern in her voice.

"I- uh..." Arisa stuttered, still trying to find her own voice. She shouldn't have stayed here. She should have left the moment the music ended, or better yet, the moment she heard the music to begin with. "I'm fine. Totally! What are you doing here, Hanazono-san?"

That was kind of a stupid question, and she wanted to punch herself in the face. But Tae seemed to think the question was perfectly normal.

"I was playing the guitar. One of the rabbits from their enclosure in the school escaped and found its way up here, so I decided to play something for it," she said in reply.

"Oh." Come to think of it, Arisa remembered Kasumi mentioning that Tae had played the guitar. It seemed obvious, now. "Wait. There's a rabbit in there?" She peered around Tae, trying to get a better look inside. As if on cue, a white rabbit hopped on top of the piano, and it seemed to watch her mockingly.

Tae looked back at it with a smile. "Yeah. Wanna stroke it? I'm gonna take it back to the enclosure soon."

"Uh..."

None of them moved for a couple of seconds: Arisa, Tae and that rabbit. Arisa opened her mouth to refuse, but instead what came out was a slightly strangled, “Fine.”

Bad luck was probably attracted to her. Just what had she done in her past life to be blessed with the gifts of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and poor social skills?

However, Tae didn’t seem to notice. She went back into the room, took the rabbit, and came back out, Arisa still standing in the doorway. She held the rabbit out to her. “Here. I think this one will like you.”

Arisa raised an eyebrow, but still put out a hand anyway. It hovered above the fur for a moment, and that second was all it took for Tae to put her own hand above hers, gently pushing it down. Arisa’s hand moved automatically after that, stroking down the soft fur.

“It wasn’t that hard, was it?” Tae said. “You work at that animal shelter, after all.”

“Not on my own accord,” Arisa mumbled, looking to the side. Maybe she was starting to get a hang of the rabbits. They weren’t bad to take care of, once you knew how. The only “pets” she had had before were her bonsai trees, and they didn’t really count, as much as she liked to talk to them as though they were real people.

One thing she knew, was that plants and animals behaved very differently from each other.

And people, too.

“Let’s go back to the enclosure together,” Tae offered once Arisa felt she had done enough stroking.

She couldn’t find any reason to refuse. “Uh, sure.”

So off they went, down the corridors and stairs, Tae with a rabbit in her arms and a guitar case on her back. They didn’t make conversation, but for some reason, it wasn’t an awkward silence. They only needed to hear their footsteps and the steady beat of Tae’s guitar case on her back as they headed down the stairs.

And this Tae Hanazono girl didn’t seem like such a bad person.

* * *

 

“Oh, hey, Arisa! You’re late today; Kasumi already left.”

“I guessed that.” Arisa put her elbows on the counter, watching Saaya refill a basket of bread. She noticed that she had been a lot happier since becoming Tomoe’s girlfriend. Relationships did that to people.

“How come you’re late? You usually hate staying at school any later than absolutely necessary.”

“Well, things can change, right?” Saaya raised an eyebrow, and Arisa sighed. She was way too perceptive for her own good. “Fine. I bumped into Hanazono-san and we took a loose rabbit back to its enclosure.”

She had been expecting a laugh, or for Saaya to tease her at this sudden caring side she seemed to be showing, but instead she smiled warmly. Having friends was weird, and Saaya was certainly different than the hurricane that Kasumi is. “That’s nice. Did you two talk about anything?”

“Not really. She let me stroke it, then when we had gotten the rabbit back safely, we just parted.” It wasn’t anything special, but for some reason, her friends seemed to be interested in this so-called “friendship” with Tae.

Saaya seemed thoughtful for a moment. “I think that you guys would get along well if you spent more time together.” She took out a bag. “The usual?”

“Yep.” Arisa watched her take a soft bun with the tongs and put it in the bag, but instead of sealing it then, she put in two more before handing it to her.

She put a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell my parents, okay?” she said jokingly. Noticing Arisa’s confused expression, she continued. “Give one of those buns to Hanazono-san, and another one to Kasumi. She’ll know what to do with it.”

“Which is...?” Arisa prompted, ignoring the part about Tae.

Saaya leaned in, allowing her to catch the faint scent of bread on her. “Has Kasumi said anything about a certain Minato Yukina?” she asked in a quiet voice, as though anybody could hear them.

Her mind drifted back to the other day, when the stern-looking girl had come into the shelter to play with the cats. Kasumi was undeniably head-over-heels for her. “Yeah. I think Kasumi has a thing for her,” she replied.

“Yep. She asked me to give her advice and stuff, so I’m thinking she should give this bun to Minato-san or something. Y’know, so they could spend more time together.”

“That’s... not a bad idea, I guess,” Arisa agreed.

Before they could continue their conversation further, the door opened and a group of girls walked in, waving to the two already inside.

“Well, I’ll see you later, Arisa. Tell me how it goes, okay?” Saaya said, before giving her greetings to the customers.

Arisa nodded, and left to go home. She had gotten a decent way there before she froze on the spot, and opened up the bag to count the buns in there. Her suspicions were confirmed.

Three. Saaya had told her to give one to Tae.

It seemed like she wouldn’t be able to forget about her any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably could have made this chapter longer, but it’s been a while since I’ve posted and I wanted to get this out. I literally have no consistent upload schedule 
> 
> Updates from now will probably be pretty slow until June because Important Exams but I’ll try my best to write whenever I can!

**Author's Note:**

> Wow... I’ve finally started writing my first bandori fic even though I’ve been stalking the tag since the beginning oops. I just couldn’t find a good idea to write about until now
> 
> I’m not sure how many chapters I want this to be, probably between 5-10. I’m not sure how well this’ll go with my fake dating au going on at the same time, but I’ll try my best
> 
> As always, hmu on my Twitter (@WeSayNosoro) or Tumblr (@we-say-nosoro) if you ever wanna talk or anything! I really wanna make new friends so yeahh


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